A police report has been lodged against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the director-general of the National Registration Department (NRD) for "an abuse" of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's personal data.

In his report lodged at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters last night, former Umno division leader Khairuddin Abu Hassan said Zahid had acted with malicious intent in his claim that he was sent a copy of Mahathir's supposed identity card by the NRD director-general stating Mahathir's name as "Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty".

Khairuddin said by doing so, both Zahid and the NRD director-general had committed offences under the Personal Data Protection Act.

"The deputy prime minister and NRD director-general have abused personal data for political agenda," he said.

In an accompanying press statement, Khairuddin slammed Zahid for being "childish" in the matter.

"The personal data of Malaysians should not be made fun of or exposed to the public, especially during a political programme."

He also urged the chief-secretary to the government (Ali Hamsa) to take action against the NRD director-general for abusing Mahathir's personal data.

"A civil servant should not conspire with a politician to abuse personal data," Khairuddin said.

Zahid took a dig at Mahathir's alleged Indian parentage yesterday, stating that Mahathir's real name was Mahathir a/l Iskandar Kutty.

The patronym “a/l” (short for “anak lelaki”, meaning “son of”) is commonly used by Indian Malaysians, although it is also used by some indigenous groups. “Kutty” is a common Tamil-Malayalee name.

Malay male names normally carry the “bin” title instead, which is the Arabic term meaning “son of”.

Zahid had claimed that he was not making a personal attack and stressed that he was only “coincidentally” the home minister when he received the NRD's information about Mahathir's IC. The NRD comes under his ministry’s purview.